Chapter 147 Good against Evil

Sikong Yun trembled with blind fear and panic that he could hardly move an inch. He could almost see the face of Death peering down at him; with a mere lift of his finger, Xiao Chen could have easily reduced him into dust and ashes.

"Release her, I say..." Xiao Chen growled again, moving slowly toward him like a fearsome beast regarding its prey. Step by step, he moved at a glacial pace toward Sikong Yun, while time seemed to have paused as everyone shared the same frightening shiver running down their spines.

Sikong Yun shook himself conscious, awaking himself from his momentary stupor with a quivering spasm while instinctively releasing his hostage. Xiao Chen stared at him coldly with the disgust of one looking at an insect and hissed, "Leave."

Sikong Yun heaved a breath of relief; he quickly scampered off the dais, thankful that his dear life was spared.

Xiao Chen approached Murong Xian'er with a benign smile; a stark difference to the fearsome monster he was just seconds before. "Xian'er," he said gently to her, "I've promised to never let any harm come to you."

But Murong Xian'er only stepped farther away from him. She was afraid, as if Xiao Chen was a terrifying stranger. Her fear was not without reason; he no longer looked human. His eyes were so red that they almost looked purple, and his self reeked so strongly of the poignant stench of Devil Qi. His smile began to froze, looking confused. "Why, Xian'er? I am your Big Brother Xiao Chen... Do you not remember me?"

"I-is that really you... Big Brother?" Murong Xian'er stammered fearfully, still trembling with apprehension at the grotesquery of Xiao Chen's appearance. But they were interrupted by a powerful force shaking from the eastern horizons.

Something, or someone powerful was coming. The diffusing force of the intruder was so great and astounding that everyone in the square could have crumbled to their knees and prostrated themselves reverently. For the first time since the fight began, Xiao Chen felt an inexplicable feeling of dread. His brows creased with anxiety at the growing sensation and he turned, seeing a white cloud racing through the air, festooned with radiant inlays of multi-colored lights.

The white-pearly cloud zipped through the air and came to a stop over the top of the square before it dissipated, revealing a sagely old man. He floated majestically in mid-air, overlooking the whole plaza filled with people gazing up at him. His robes fluttered in the high winds and Xiao Chen suddenly realized, that the old man was able to fly without using any artifacts or swords!

A peal of cries from the crowd began calling out to the old man. Sikong Yun screamed loudly at the old man, calling him "Senior Yunya!" as if his savior had just arrived. He had sent word yesterday to the Skygale Sect about Murong Xian'er, informing them that she was the witch of the Devil's Practice who had escaped from the Skygale Sect. But never did he expect that they would send Yunya Zi, a reclusive master of the arcane arts nearing the Realm of the Nascent Soul.

With strengths nearing the legendary Nascent Soul Realm where one would be able to fully assimilate the forces of Nature into one's self, Yunya Zi reigned supreme, suffering almost no equal to his indomitable might. He was the former leader of the Skygale Sect before abdicating the leadership of the sect to his student, the present leader of the Skygale Sect, Tianyun Zi.

But Xiao Chen had only the deepest loathing as a dark grudge welled up within him. The Skygale Sect! The name rang in his mind like a tolling bell; the ones who had abducted Senior Sister Luo and Xian'er!

The boiling anger rising within Xiao Chen made the Devil Qi curling around him grew stronger and denser. Yunya Zi noticed the churning foul energies that emitted from the young man standing atop the dais. But he paid no heed to Xiao Chen; prideful of his seniority and strength, Yunya Zi wore a lofty air of condescension as he looked down at Sikong Yun. "Master Sikong," he commanded, "Where is the person you mentioned?"

"There!" Sikong Yun pointed hastily, "That is the witch that I've written to you about!" His finger jabbed straight at Murong Xian'er.

Yunya Zi's gaze immediately trained upon her, his eyes gleamed with greed. "Very good!" He roared gleefully, "Fortune is with us! So she has escaped here!" He swung his sleeves, his hand sweeping forth in an arc, conjuring a wind of brilliant lights, formed by his True Energy, that was about to engulf Murong Xian'er whole and whisk her away.

Xiao Chen too flailed his sleeve, his hand sent forth a volley of Devil Qi. The blow met head-on with the radiant gale summoned by Yunya Zi and immediately canceled out each other, dispelling into nothingness. The strength of the blow surprised Yunya Zi, who had rarely suffered insolence and rebuffs from others. "Who are you?" He barked at Xiao Chen, "You dare offend me?"

"Hmph..." Xiao Chen scoffed, "A mere cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm, yet you dare display such impudence..."

But Yunya Zi was nevertheless a well-seasoned person; knowing better than to blindly succumb to his rage, he suppressed his anger. Still, he could hardly resist returning Xiao Chen's impertinence with a frosty glare that was enough to convey his displeasure. "I have heard word that the Human World's branch of the Skygale Sect was been utterly uprooted," he replied with a steely voice, "Was that your handiwork?"

"Of course it was; including the death of your student, Tiangu Zi!" Xiao Chen declared.

"What!? He'd slain even Master Tiangu Zi?" Murmurs, screams, and gasps rolled through the crowd. The next moment, everyone in the square felt the brimming aura of rage and malice churning from overhead.

"And a job well done, you murderous knave!" Yunya Zi bellowed, his limbs shivering with suppressed anger. The air around him began to change; even the weather turned dark and dreary in response to his swirling agitation. He was known to be a teacher who doted on his students like they were his sons, being notoriously partisan toward them. He neither knew about the incidents at the Human World, nor did he know what had happened to Daofeng and the others, although he had long suspected the worst. But with Xiao Chen now claiming responsibility of the annihilation of the Skygale Sect at the Human World, he was beginning to lose control of his fury.

"An eye for an eye!" Yunya Zi howled. He smote hard at Xiao Chen's direction, sending a powerful blow down toward the ground. Everyone else on the ground went pale; a stroke from a skilled champion nearing the Nascent Soul Realm was so forceful that the flagstones of the square began bursting into splinters even before the stroke fell. Trees and plants around them instantly disintegrated into bits and pieces, disappearing into scuds of dust and soot thrown up by the winds caused by the incoming strike.

But Xiao Chen remained standing atop the dais, dauntless even as the deadly volley of pure energy headed for straight at him. He responded with a stroke of his own, sending forth another salvo of Devil Qi that took on the form of a titanic palm. The two bursts of raw energy met in mid-air and were swallowed whole by a deafening explosion. The explosion created a black hole, a ravenous vortex that sucked and drew in everything into its limitless bowels, churning up winds and gusts of swirling debris that flew aimlessly around the square.

This was a duel between juggernaut; one that no common mortals could intervene. The crowds immediately dispersed from the square, fleeing for their lives as early as they could before they ended up only as collateral.

But high up in the sky, even Yunya Zi himself could hardly mask his surprise and amazement at Xiao Chen's might. Realizing that Xiao Chen could well one day become a threat, he knew that Xiao Chen could never be allowed to walk away alive. Determined to spill blood today, he sent forth another blow.

Xiaoyue had been watching from afar, her mind addled with confusion, shock, fright. From a distance, she studied the now-mutated Xiao Chen who was but a mere inch from completely transforming into a monster as a fear, long dormant in slumber, crept out from the depths of her heart and returned to haunt her. She remembered the words passed down to her by her predecessor and teacher, before hers before her; the secret instructions passed down through the generations of the Thousand Feathers Sect leadership: "Woe unto the Thousand Feathers Sect, if THAT PERSON so attains resurrection."

"But it can't be..." She murmured to herself, unable to believe her eyes, "That was merely a vision that the Founder had witnessed from the Mirror of Kunlun millennia before. It's cannot be true..." She repeated herself softly in denial while trying to calm herself down and regain her composure. But her efforts were futile; every time Xiao Chen howled, she could hardly resist shuddering.

In no time, what had been a handsomely-furnished square was now merely a heap of rubble with debris sprawled everywhere. The many-pillared halls of the stronghold, once the crown and pride of the Widespread Wintriness Sect, was reduced into nothing but a necropolis of ruins. Despite the anguish of the losses incurred, Sikong Yun could only hope that Yunya Zi could quickly defeat and slay Xiao Chen lest the nightmare now unfolding before his very ends would only end with the utter devastation of the Widespread Wintriness Sect.

Yet the two combatants had exchanged close to a hundred blow, still, the gritting battle has yet to show any signs of ending. Remaining afloat in mid-air, Yunya Zi invoked layers and layers of magically-woven shields of blinding radiance and had them wrapped around himself while he looked more and more the semblance of an immortal from Heaven.

Xiao Chen remained standing, warily on guard as his long hair streamed wildly in the wind caused by the simmering Devil Qi swirling around him. They both watched intently at each other with utmost concentration; one hovering in mid-air, divine and terrible, while the other looking up at his foe, resilient and unyielding. A duel between two personifications of both Good and Evil.

But never did anyone realized that Xiao Chen had two different kinds of True Qi within his self. One was the pure and sublime True Qi that he had amassed using the Mystic Cyan Cultivation Method, while the other was the foul Devil Qi spawned by the twelve Spiritual Meridians within him. Like the contrasting Yin-Yang motifs on a taijitu symbol, the two True Qis were utterly opposite in essence to each other. But for now, it was the Devil Qi that was distinctly in possession of the upper hand.

Yunya Zi's browed creased as he summoned his might and he thundered, "Come forth, I summon you, Heaven-slaying Sword!" The sky turned pale, as if cowering in the face of an insurmountable aura released by Yunya Zi's freshest conjuration: a gigantic sword of gold that hung in the air!